Review: The Sony Conference

“These are just words,” said Mark Cerny, gesturing towards a bunch of words on the screen. (He’s an engineer, and so literal facts are important.)

He was right. Words whizzed at us like futuristic bullets in a badly bollocksed space-age skymall, shiny, speedy, somehow all pretty much the same as one another.

When the first man on stage manages to cram these crimes-against-language into three sentences - portfolio, content, franchises, ecosystem, social interactions, connectivity, consumer-centric - you know that words are going to be flying pell-mell and it’s time to hit the cover-button.

Exit Theatre Mode

Agreeable men in sports jackets, 35-45, appeared on stage, one after another, and talked words, repeated them as if they had signed up to a cult dedicated to selling a box that would fill your life with all the dreams you had ever dreamed. Imaginations would be unleashed. Nothing would ever come between you and your game ever again. Unless you have a large dog, or small children, or a cohabitant who vacuums regularly, say.

Dazed, I wondered, what are these words bouncing off my synapses like so many blue things? What do they signify? I figured that, at some point, they would register actual meaning.

A ‘consumer-oriented-functionality-and-ease-of-use’ grenade rolled by me. I gazed at it without comprehension. But I’m a reporter and I’m supposed to be getting some of these words and so I faced down the barrage and they slammed into my torso and I understood these four salvos...

simple - personalization - immediacy - integrated

It all means that PlayStation will do some smart things, things that will make my gaming life less frustrating, more enjoyable. Behind the bland words were actual benefits.

In fact, the glimpses of games went on for like an hour, which is seriously impressive in the world of console first-looks.

It dawned on me, even as I sat enjoying the games, that PlayStation 4 is going be just as neat as we’d all hoped. But also that the incredible PS1-PS2 jump is never going to come again. Nor the enormous PS2-PS3 leap.

The astonishing visual fidelity being shown in New York, is quite a bit nicer than the gorgeous fidelity I can find on my PS3 at home. These are lovely-looking games. But they are not so much greater than PS3 that my tongue is lolling around my curly chest-hair.

This PS3-PS4 leap requires something extra. And that something extra is services, connectivity, ease-of-use, social thingamajigs. Important things. Useful things.

We found out when the console is coming, but there were words missing too. Words like 'PlayStation 4 will be priced at...." and "look at the pretty box you'll be putting by your TV soon".

But yes, two hours of PlayStation 4 was a damned good return. A bunch of games. Some great ideas. Specs. Games. Services. Not just words, after all.